N.C.-Based Website Does Battle With ‘Birther’ Movement

So why get into the ring with the birthers, especially if you’re Bryan, a 59-year-old ex-lawyer in North Raleigh, running a small business, living a life that is totally unrelated to Obama’s birthplace? Why wrestle with a pig, knowing how dirty you’ll get, and how much the pig will enjoy it?

Bryan explains it like this:

Once in a while, somebody says something so outrageous, so irrational, so demonstrably false that it bores into your skin like a tick - and against your better judgment, even though every brain cell in your skull says let it be, you decide to fight back.

“I’m lucky they haven’t shown up with torches and pitchforks,” he said. “But I have gotten harassing phone calls telling me I’m going to hell and I’m a Communist.”

Bryan is a well-known presence in online forums, including some that no longer exist on The News & Observer, and he enjoys a blistering Internet battle.

His site, thefogbow.com, got started when eight like-minded birther-haters found each other online and decided to combine forces - giving Bryan the reins because he knew how to embed YouTube videos.

“They call us Obots,” he explained. “We’re Obama robots and we can’t think for ourselves.”

By definition, a fogbow is similar to a rainbow - a weather phenomenon that happens when sunshine strikes fog rather than rain, creating a red and blue glow. So you can understand the light-bringing-clarity symbolism going on here. The group’s motto: Falsehoods unchallenged only fester and grow.